Crop Pro investment to aid in development of agricultural analytics products

Crop Pro Insurance, an insurance and technology firm focused on helping farmers manage risk and maximize profitability, announced the close of an $8 million Series A funding round co-led by Finistere Ventures and Seed 2 Growth Ventures (S2G). Insurance provider GuideOne Insurance also joined the round.

Crop Pro will use the investment to expand its team and expedite the development of products and services designed for bridging the gap between agricultural and financial technologies.

“This is a unique opportunity to bring new technology and business models to the $11B crop insurance market, and we see Crop Pro playing a significant role in connecting AgTech and FinTech,” said Sanjeev Krishnan, CIO and managing director at S2G Ventures. “Crop insurance is a vital component in ensuring farm risk management, and we are pleased to be partnering with the leading innovator in the sector.”

Crop Pro will offer risk management solutions for emerging and traditional agriculture markets for the 2018 crop season. According to the USDA, more than 290 million acres of U.S. farmland are protected through the Federal Crop Insurance Program.

“Our vision is to help growers minimize risk by delivering proven insurance offerings and new risk management tools through our longstanding network of independent insurance agents,” said Crop Pro chairman Billy Rose. “As agriculture continues to evolve, we want to empower farmers to use the current wave of advanced technologies to solve longstanding productivity challenges while helping them manage the financial risk.”

Rose also said that data analytics will transform both crop insurance and farming itself, adding, “In the future, we also hope to give farmers a way to use their data more effectively to benchmark the efficacy of new technologies, from crop seed to digital agronomy.”

“At a time when poor commodity prices and financial uncertainty are meaningful barriers to investment on-farm, Crop Pro’s compelling model has the potential to engage farmers and drive the growth of top AgTech players,” noted Arama Kukutai, managing director and co-founder at Finistere Ventures.

Both Krishnan and Kukutai will join the Crop Pro board and support the company's growth as it expands.